Brussels, 03/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - The lack of reliable statistics on the European population hampers implementation of effective immigration policies within the EU. During a press conference in Brussels on 30 March, a team under the coordination of Michel Poulain, Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), presented the results of its research on the harmonisation of statistical sources. He explained that each Member State has its own method for establishing statistics and that governments are reluctant to change, although harmonisation would allow systems to be more consistent with each other without affecting national procedure. The project, called Towards Harmonised European Statistics on International Migration (THESIM), was conducted with the participation of Ann Singleton, Senior Research Fellow at Bristol University, and Nicolas Perrin, a research assistant at UCL, with the support of the European Commission. Until now, our decisions on migration policy were based on faulty and sometimes non-existent statistics, Jordi Garcia Martinez, representing the Commission, told the press. The THESIM project would allow reliable statistical data comparable throughout the EU to be gathered each year. During the inquiry, the Scandinavian countries were the most cooperative and the statistics provided by them are reliable, Professor Poulain commented, saying that, in countries were there are no central registers, it is difficult to give a reliable estimate of migratory flows. With the THESIM method, Member States will have to collaborate more closely with each other. This will allow access to complete information on the number of asylum seekers, workers or students residing abroad as well as on persons living in a country in a family reunification situation.